Money

I remembered a childhood discussion I had with my father today about the importance of a stable job. He would implore me to work hard, get a good education, then climb onto the corporate ladder. A good job, he would say, would provide all the income I’d need. Funny thing to remember as we still come to grips with the world economic collapse. This advice belongs in my childhood and should stay there forever, like Peter Pan, in never never land.

Those days are long gone. Today, we need to look at our income sources much differently and spread our income generating sources based on the likelihood of income risk. The riskier your income sources, the broader based your portfolio should be. If you have a stable government job as your primary income source, your risk exposure will be quite low. In contrast, if you have a manufacturing job as your primary income source, your risk exposure will be high. This is so because its existence will be tightly tied to the health of the economy. When the economy weakens, so does the need for a company to reduce the number of jobs. Unfortunately, this is precisely when you need the job the most. As a result, you need to diversify your income sources to reduce your risk exposure.

Like all investments, you should ease into diversifying your income. The more successful you become at generating alternative sources of income, the greater opportunity to further diversify. There are several types of income that people can earn: earned income – the type we gain from the nine to five grind; residual income – the type we gain from things like rental income or royalties; and finally, investment income – the type we gain from interest or dividents on our investment.

Here is a primer for how you could spread your income sources:

Newbie:

Earned income: 90%
Residual income: 5%
Investment income: 5%

Balanced:

Earned income: 70%
Residual income: 10%
Investment income: 15%

Leveraged:

Earned income: 60%
Residual income: 20%
Investment income: 20%

To better manage your income risk exposure take the time to find the right income mix for you. This simple approach will save you from childhood advice once and for all.

Money

John Schmoll presents Taking the Plunge: 1 Year Quitiversary!!! posted at Frugal Rules, saying, “I have been officially running our own business for one year now. I have learned many things over the past year, but most importantly that being self-employed is not easy but is incredibly rewarding and that fear can be a powerful thing.”

Last night, I joined my friends at the outdoor patio for a beer to catch up on our lives. The beer was cold, the nachos were plenty, and the conversation was effortless. Each of us had good jobs and good life break experiences, but we couldn’t stop talking about how important it was to develop multiple streams of income, no matter how small, no matter how silly, no matter what source. The important thing was not to put all our eggs, our livelihood, into one basket.

We dared not take the path of the ‘average.’ It was too scary to imagine one income stream as our sole support mechanism. The world economic collapse brought home the cold reality of the reliance on a single income source. We recognized that we couldn’t protect ourselves from downsizing activities or layoffs, but we could lessen the blow by diversifying our incomes to reduce our risk.

Generating multiple streams of income will give you more flexibility and time in your life. Leveraging income gives you the means to:

Lessen risks to economic ups and downs by removing the dependence on a single source of income.

Multiple revenue streams with multiple profit levels and different interests with regular income generation.

Diversification of career interests.

Receiving income from a single source is one of the world’s greatest follies and a key factor in why so many people become trapped in the spinning wheel of the workplace. Your optimum scenario is to automate your income flows and get others to work for you.

There are several constants in time; there are 168 hours in a week. The average person works 40 hours a week. The average person sleeps eight hours a day, leaving each person approximately 72 hours a week to devote to personal pursuits. There’s no excuse. We do have time in our lives to do things that matter most! What you need to do is to remove those “time wasters,” reduce the time you devote to mindless entertainment, such as watching TV, Facebook, and other social media. I’m not saying to eliminate these things; just reduce your reliance and dependence on them. Take this newfound “time” to find and generate your diverse income sources, such as:

An automated online store

Develop a blog and begin creating your brand or expertise

Begin consulting or freelance work

Write a book or articles

Research and understand the stock market

Research real estate opportunities

To develop diverse sources of income, you need to invest in time to do other things. As you can see, it’s easier than you would have thought. However, when we do activities that are fulfilling, it doesn’t feel like work; rather, it’s considered a pursuit. Your energy level usually increases, your focus remains positive, and you become happier. This is an investment in your future. It will take some time and effort, but you’ll never regret the outcome.

Theresa Torres presents 7 Small Biz Expenses: What to Keep and What to Cut posted at
href="http://www.freshbooks.com">FreshBooks Blog, saying, “If you’re a small business owner looking for ways to lower costs, it helps to be aware on what expenses to cut and what to keep.”

Mr.CBB presents How To Overcome Laziness And Save Money In 5 Steps posted at
href="http://canadianbudgetbinder.com">Canadian Budget Binder, saying, “Not everyone has to build a garden to make a salad on their own nor do they have to hire a landscaping company to maintain the beauty of their home. Taking time to set goals and prioritize those goals will go a long way in saving money in the budget.”

Christine Chiang presents Working from Home | The Pursuit of Green posted at The Pursuit of Green, saying, “Not too long ago I started working from home once or twice a week. It really opens up your options and allows me to enjoy more time spent being productive, than being in a car driving or stuck in meetings.”

Justina Tagbo presents When to Stay or Walk away! posted at Achievers and Movers in the Kingdom of God., saying, “If your business is not really working and you have put in your very best to it, then walk away from it and look for another business. It does not mean that you are a Failure far from it but simply means that you are determined to make it no matter the obstacle before you!! Thumbs up!”

John Schmoll presents Things I Would Never Do: Raid My 401k to Buy Property posted at Frugal Rules, saying, “There is an increasing number of investors taking out loans on their 401k accounts in order to buy investment property. While diversification of investments is key, the inherent risk may not be enough to offset the potential gain.”

Jana presents 3 Tips to Support Your Intuition In Business : Wisdom Ink Magazine posted at Wisdom Ink, saying, “One of the main things that saves money, time and heartache in business is having access to your intuition. When we tune into our inner GPS, our bodies automatically know who is good to work with, who isn’t, what is a good deal and what we will waste time on. Here are 3 tips to support your intuition in business.”

The sun was peaking out from behind clouds sending streaks of warm rays cascading downward. A good slather of SPF 40 was once again applied to my arms and legs, readying for another round of bathing light. The sounds of the waterfall into the pool created a hypnotic hum resting my mind from the chaotic days that I just endured. Alas, a break. Me, my book, the pool, and the sun. If only I were rich, I thought to myself, then I could enjoy this experience each and every day. Wealth would be the savior and my road to, well, everything.

Hmmm, wealth? An interesting thought. Wealth is actually something I already had and lots of it. Wealth is what we need to survive and live happily. It’s the food and water we need to live, the health we enjoy, the relationships we embrace, and the freedom we have. So, in essence, it wasn’t wealth that I was really thinking about, it was money. However, money is a symbolic process we use to help gain elements of wealth, but it’s not wealth in itself.

Money, on the other hand is really only a perceived value. To put this in context, I couldn’t help but to think about the 1929 Great Depression when the world economies nose-dived. Virtually every country in the world was impacted. Peoples’ incomes, profits, and prices all plunged, and international trade dropped by more than 50%. The value of money was severely impacted; however, none of the physical resources, trees, coal, etc., had changed. The ‘means’ to wealth were still there, only the value we placed on money had changed, and radically at that. This is not much different from the recent world economic collapse – the value of things dropped dramatically but once again the ‘means’ to generate the wealth were unchanged.

This is a profound lesson. It’s important to focus on the ‘means’ to create value not the perceived value itself. If I’m going to make an investment, it’s far better to base the decision on the ability of the company to produce ongoing value, not on the price of the stock at any given point in time, because as we all know, stock prices will vary ad nauseam. This change in perception will bring greater clarity to anyone’s decision making process.

The Author

Robert Renaud is one of the newest thought-provoking writers on living life more fully. His book The Time Trading Guru shows how to instantly reach dreams using the DREAM process and leveraging the levers of life: time, flexibility, and money. Here, he writes about a blueprint to escape the workplace, take 'life breaks,' and start living again.

Robert Renaud live interview on DayTime Ottawa show. you can watch it here.

The Time Trading Guru

The Time Trading Guru gives you a blueprint to living life more fully. Use the DREAM process and the levers of life: time, flexibility, and money to escape the workplace, take 'life breaks,' and become personally fulfilled.